A host digital terminal (HDT) manages multiple headend modems, and each headend modem (HEM) handles a large number of voiceports over radio frequency channels. For example, there may be 28 headend modems managed by each host digital terminal and each headend modem may handle 120 voiceports. The host digital terminal is in turn connected through communication links to switches in a larger telecommunications network.
As the number of voiceports in a given area increases, the distribution of voiceports to headend modems must be managed and redistributed to prevent an overload of the communication capacity of each headend modem. In some cases, modems will be added and in other cases voiceports will just be moved from overloaded modems to modems that have more capacity. This management process for redistributing the voiceports has been a very labor-intensive process requiring six or more man-hours a week in a communication system having multiple host digital terminals. The voiceport redistribution process requires a communication engineer to examine tables with up to a million entries looking out for voiceport congestion problems and looking for headend modems to redistribute voiceports to so as to reduce the congestion problems.
It is with regard to this problem and others related to the management of the voiceport distribution among the headend modems that the present invention has been made.